Records Services activities concern all inactive records
covering Smith County’s District and County Courts and other select
documentation regarding and preserving the precious history and heritage of
Smith County and its people. Actions involving the receipt, storage, retrieval,
use, and disposition of the records are done according to State law and the
rules of the State Library and Archives Commission.

This pertains directly to the statutory authority of Government Code: Chapter
441, subchapter L; 441.225(b); 441.185, and State Agency Bulletin #4 of
September 2007. The counties of Texas are legally responsible for retaining and
preserving their permanent and historical records.

Under the legal purview of the Commissioners Court, service is provided to all
residents of Smith County and any others wishing to access the records properly
consistent with maintaining the requisite security of the documentation. All
efforts are aimed toward striving for excellence .

Records management can be defined as a field of management
responsible for both the efficient and systematic administration and control of
the creation, receipt, maintenance, utilization, protection, and disposition of
records, regardless of the recording medium involved.

Included within this understanding are processes for capturing and maintaining
records as evidence of and information about business activities and
transactions. Organized control is then definitely involved over the information
used in executive problem-solving and decision-making activities concerning the
intelligent use of a systematic and scientific approach to business records
management, public or private.

There is a rational concern for all records required for the proper continuance
of government and business operations at costs consistent with the related
services involved; this is so that needless records will not be created and
useful ones will be available, when needed, by an institution. In short,
the basic effort is to get the right data/information/record to the right person
at the right time and at a reasonable cost. This is part of the
management of a viable program, with its systems and subsystems in place, for
the support of institutional records work covering the entire lifecycle of a
record from its initial creation to its final disposition or complete
destruction.

Records are best seen as within the inclusive scope and context of records and
information resources management where information, in any records medium, is
thought of as an important resource equal to human, plant, equipment, and assets
held by any institution, public or private.

The Smith County Records Department delights in actively assisting all customers
and the general public, by providing professional access to the deposited
records, through trying to yield the best possible service.

Activities are directly aligned with the ongoing purposes of the Commissioners
Court and for properly enhancing all efforts to effectively and efficiently meet
the many important needs of County departments seeking records management
guidance, assistance, or advice.

RSD Core Values

The professional records management (RM) values the RSD holds properly form the
foundation on which it performs work and conducts itself. Even in an
ever-changing world, going far into the 21st century, core values still ought to
be a rational and requisite constant. Core values, as a consequence, are not
merely descriptions of the work accomplished or the strategies employed to
accomplish the RSD’s mission; substantial and substantive achievement is to be
obtained.

The values being demonstrated, by the work done, do then underlie the efforts
made, how they interact with each other, and which strategies are deliberately
employed to fulfill the RSD’s mission. The core values are the basic elements of
how the RSD goes about its work; in addition, they are the practices, used every
day in everything that needs to be achieved for improved RM for Smith County,
which ought to make a critical and enduring difference for this local
government.

Core values for this department, therefore, importantly encompass the following:
rendering of the best service possible to County agencies involved with or
seeking its RM services, maintaining professional standards of ethics and
conduct for working with internal (agencies/departments) and for external
customers, and taking pride in accomplishing the needful tasks assigned, duties
acknowledged, and responsibilities upheld, for having a positive impact and
lasting impression, in fulfillment of its ongoing and appropriate RM endeavor.

RSD Core Competencies

The RSD’s areas of greatest expertise concern Records Center operations in terms
of servicing County agencies and providing all related RM advice for better
managing records and information resources. Those strategically important
capabilities are, dedicatedly, central to fulfilling the RSD’s mission and for
providing the advantage in having such services for Smith County. These core
competencies should be viewed, therefore, as frequently challenging this agency
to ever improve its public services and provide a sustainable RM-oriented
benefit expressed toward all the work performed.

RSD Vision Statement

Core values and competencies, however, ought to be based upon an explicit
vision. The RSD seeks to meet the challenges of 21st century RM needs,
opportunities, and possibilities geared toward its being a department primarily
focused upon servicing other County units of government, though never to the
neglect of the general public, its customers, and other interested parties.

Through such affirmatively attempted RM leadership, as is thus provided by the
RSD, it will demonstrate empirical efforts that highlight directly how this
department can try to be a progressive institution, as to then rightly staying
in proper touch with all aspects of modern records technology, RM best
practices, and cognate standards. This is the RSD’s way and means of adhering to
positive allegiance toward the Smith County motto: “Striving for Excellence.”